Bleeding, incoherent man stops breathing in Houston police custody

By Dale Lezon |
October 28, 2013

A man is in the hospital after he briefly stopped breathing while police officers attempted to restrain him in east Houston after he was seen bleeding, shouting incoherently, banging on a gas station window, jumping onto stopped cars and rolling on the ground.

Cannon said officers were dispatched to the scene on an emergency call about a suspicious person. Witnesses reported the man, described as being Hispanic and in his 30s, banging on the glass door of a gas station. He then threw a trash can across the parking lot and was seen rolling on the pavement and in the median of the street.

Cannon said he was wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, which may possibly have been underwear briefs. He appeared to be about 6 feet tall and weighed between about 250 and 275 pounds. One of his hands was bleeding.

Cannon said the man leaped onto the hood of a green sports utility vehicle that was stopped at the traffic light on the East Freeway feeder road to Lathrop, yelled incoherently and then rolled on the ground.

When two police officers arrived, Cannon said, the man jumped onto the hoods of their patrol cars. The officers tried to restrain the man, but he was very powerful, combative and difficult to control. Other officers arrived to help.

Cannon said it was unclear what sparked the incident, but it is believed the man was under the influence of narcotics. Tests will be administered to determine what, if any, narcotics may have contributed to the man's behavior.

The police officers, the woman driving the SUV and the clerk in the gas station were not hurt.

The HPD Homicide and Internal Affairs divisions as well as the Harris County District Attorney's Office are investigating the case, which is common in such an incident.